How Often Should You Feel Your Baby During Pregnancy
It’s for that reason that many mothers ask just how often they should be able to feel their babies moving.
The frequency of fetal movement throughout the day is an important piece of information for obstetricians.
This doesn’t mean you need to be on alert all day, but being aware can help provide your doctor with important information about how your baby is doing.
Feeling your baby: Movement evolves as your pregnancy advances
At the beginning of pregnancy, future mothers won’t feel any movement at all. In the following weeks, you may feel some very slight movements or grazes that occur very infrequently.
As your pregnancy advances towards the halfway mark, these sensations will increase. During your last trimester, you’ll most likely feel these movements several times per hour.
However, this will depend on the time of day as well as your baby’s individual behavior.
There will be times when your baby is more active as well as times when he’ll clearly be sleeping or resting.
So remember, it’s normal not to feel your baby kicking or moving around for several hours each day.
Keeping a daily record of movements
Specialists often recommend that mothers keep track of the times they feel their baby moving in the uterus.
This way, you can make sure your baby is okay and also learn to recognize the patterns of his or her movements .
This doesn’t mean you need to take note of every single time you sense a movement. Rather, calculate approximately how much time goes by between one episode of movement and another .
Each developing baby has his or her own particularities. Time of day is also a factor. In general, babies are more active between 9 o’clock at night and 1 o’clock in the morning
Why is it important to talk about this frequency with your doctor?
First of all, it’s important that your doctor be aware of the frequency of your child’s movements.
This is especially true during the final weeks of pregnancy when the appearance of fetal movement is particularly relevant. A lack of noticeable fetal activity for a prolonged period of time is a cause for concern.
When babies are far along in their development and nearing the end of gestation, then strangulation by umbilical cord becomes a possibility.
On occasions, babies stop moving in order to guarantee their own survival. When that’s the case, doctors almost always call for an emergency c-section.
Therefore, we recommend that, during your pregnancy, you learn to identify your little one’s routine. If you notice any changes in this dynamic, it may be a sign of oncoming trouble, and you should contact your doctor.
Some tips for keeping track of your baby’s movement
It’s important that you keep track of your baby’s movements in the right way. The goal is to be aware of your baby’s movements and be able to detect them objectively.
We recommend lying down on your bed, resting on the left side of your body. The best time to do this is shortly after one of your daily meals .
The idea behind this procedure is to keep track of how long it takes for your baby to make 10 movements.
If you do this on a daily basis, then you’ll have a sense of your little one’s average frequency. This will help you discover if anything occurs that is out of the ordinary.
So then, how often should I feel my baby move while I’m pregnant?
Babies can carry out up to for 40 different noticeable movements within the mother’s womb.
These movements occur when babies stretch their arms or legs, swim, or perform other actions. Punches, pushes, and kicks are also on the list.
Many of these actions are the baby’s response to external noises or the mother’s movements.
They may also be a reaction to certain foods the mother eats that cause the baby to become more active. Such is the case with sugar, for example.
Monitoring your baby’s movements several times a day during your pregnancy can be life saving in the case that complications arise. This is especially important from week 28 and on.
If you have any doubts, rather than becoming anxious or obsessed, speak with your OB/GYN.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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